Search watoday:

Search in:

Israeli PM denies ASIO Zygier role

Ruth Pollard, Jerusalem

ISRAELI government representatives tried to shut down the investigation into the death in custody of Ben Zygier, the Australian suspected of spying for Mossad, arguing there was no indication of a criminal action or negligence in the matter.

But his family — once they were allowed to view the evidence — successfully fought for the investigation to continue, a report from the judge who led the inquiry into his death, Daphna Blatman-Kedrai, reveals.

"The State concluded its arguments in the deliberation on [September 13, 2011], even before the family was permitted to peruse the evidentiary material and then claimed . . . the case must be closed after it was not learned from the investigation that the death of the deceased was brought about by means of a criminal action," Judge Blatman-Kedrai's report reads.

After viewing the evidence, the family submitted "a factual argument and a conclusion according to which the investigation uncovered a series of failures that point to having caused death by negligence".

Advertisement

The investigation continued into 2012, until the judge handed down her report in secret on December 19, 2012, in which she found "there is alleged evidence that failures on the part of various elements of the Prison Service caused his death".

Her report was only partially released on Tuesday in repose to a media application to the Supreme Court to further lift the gag order on the details of Mr Zygier's arrest, detention and death.

Seeking to put an end to speculation that the Australian suspected of spying for Mossad had been arrested for passing on information to ASIO, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied Ben Zygier had any contact with Australia's domestic intelligence agency.

In a statement released overnight, Mr Netanyahu's office stressed "the late Mr Zygier had no contact with the Australian security agencies".

Some media reports suggested that 34-year-old Ben Zygier, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen, was arrested by Israeli security services for giving intelligence to ASIO officials about Mossad's practice of using Australian passports to spy in countries hostile to Israel.

Mr Netanyahu also moved to hose down any possibility of a rift between Australia and Israel, with his office stating there is "excellent cooperation, full coordination and complete transparency in dealing with current issues" between the two countries.

It is the first time the Israeli government has mentioned Mr Zygier by name since the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program identified him as "Prisoner X" in a report last Tuesday.

Fairfax Media revealed that Mr Zygier, who had immigrated to Israel in 2000 and travelled back to Australia to change his name and passport at least three times, was under ASIO surveillance at the time of his arrest in February 2010 and was suspected, along with two other dual Australian-Israeli citizens, of spying for Mossad.

The report into his death found he removed a sheet from his bed and went to the shower, where he believed he would be out of the gaze of prison guards.

It was here he was found hanged at 8.19pm on December 15, 2010 — the bed sheet attached to the cell's window, according to the report.

"The duties placed on the [Israel Prison Service] in connection to the deceased were particularly complex given the cloak of secrecy, gaps in information and compartmentalisation," Judge Blatman-Kedrai wrote.

"Nevertheless, orders to prevent suicide were given and the elements entrusted with guarding the prisoner were aware of them. These orders were not upheld and a 'window of opportunity' was used by the deceased to commit suicide."

The cause of death, according to the report of a doctor, Ricardo Nachman, mentioned in the judge's report, was asphyxiation.

After attempting to supress the story of the months-long solitary confinement and death of Mr Zygier, firstly by a court-issued gag order and then via pressure from the prime minister's office on the editors of Israel's media, the government appears to have accepted it can no longer stay silent on the issue.

Some senior ministers, such as Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, have publicly criticised the decision to withhold information about Mr Zygier's case from the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, however Mr Netanyahu continues to defend that decision.

There are now two further inquiries into matter — the State Attorney's office is looking into the allegations of negligence on behalf of the Prison Service, while a subcommittee of the Knesset is conducting its own inquiry.

The Australian Government is also conducting its own inquiry into the death.